Assorted Noob Ship building questions

[dr_roo]

Hey folks, just started playing and loving it so far, got a few questions with regards to building ships.

 

1. Do thrusters need clear line of sight to the outside universe? i.e. if I wrap a thruster in armour will it still work? What about is I wrap the thrusters in armour or hull but leave a gap between the two? Basically I'm asking can I hide thrusters and still have them work.

 

2. Is there a way to control the pilot/view point of a ship? I can use alt + mouse to control it somewhat but I'd like to be able to position the cockpit/flight deck if possible. In build mode I can use F to focus on a specific block, it'd be nice to do something similar. If I try to make a big ship then the view point seems to get pushed way back and I prefer to fly from the front of ships.

 

3. For blocks where volume matters is a single large section better than lots of smaller blocks? Or is it just the total volume that matters?

 

4. Thrusters - is the number of, um, thruster holes, purely visual or does it affect the generated thrust? Is the thrust based purely on area / volume?

 

5. If a copy a section of blocks in building mode, is there a way to flip them before placing them? I can rotate them but if I want to copy a section from one side of the ship to the other I need to mirror it rather than rotate it.

 

6. I've added in a mod to show turret DPS but the display varies from turret to turret. No frills chain guns seem to out DPS most other weapons available to me (just started getting naonite lasers and plasmas). What's the best way to compare weapons when deciding what to fit?

 

7. I'm pretty sure the answer to this is no but is it possible to build a carrier that you can use to transport small ships (player ships rather than fighters) around?

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting questions but that'll do for now. Thanks in advance.

 

Andy

[Blondersheel]

1: Thrusters don't need line of sight or even "space" to work. You can cover them in armour and they will still work.

2: Alt+mouse is the only viewpoint control I know of.

3: For most blocks, it is only the volume that matters (e.g. 1000 1x1x1 blocks has the same effect as a single 10x10x10 block. There are a few exceptions to this rule (cargo bays for sure and I think also fighter bays). These blocks assume a wall thickness that is unusable space (.5 thickness). What this means is that for these blocks, it's better to do a few large blocks instead of many small ones.

4: number of thruster holes is purely visual. Thrust is based on block volume.

5: There is no way to mirror a copied section of blocks that I know of. Your best bet is to use the "mirror x axis" option when building.

6: That's a complicated question. DPS is generally the best way, but you also have to consider the "overheats" trait as well as some weapons with the "consumes energy" trait that have INSANE energy increase per second. Keep in mind that weapon stats are very random and higher material tiers aren't necessarily better.

7: No there isn't. I can imagine a really ghetto way of doing this if you turn collision damage off and just leave a hole in the Center of your ship to "land" your other ships in, but the second you jump to a new system, you'll leave them behind.

 

Hope that helps!

[Splutty]

You can mirror a copied selection by making a temporary new selection.

 

Put in a long temporary rod, select this as your mirror base, then use X/Y/Z mirroring to paste your selection to it, and it'll be pasted mirrored as well. Then select this new mirrored bit, and delete the lot again :)

[Fox]

...

5. If a copy a section of blocks in building mode, is there a way to flip them before placing them? I can rotate them but if I want to copy a section from one side of the ship to the other I need to mirror it rather than rotate it.

...

After you copy em and holding the blocks "in hand" press X- or C-Button (or was it X and Y respectivly Z on US Layout?) to mirror your current selection without placing beforehand!

[Pob]

It's x and z,

...

5. If a copy a section of blocks in building mode, is there a way to flip them before placing them? I can rotate them but if I want to copy a section from one side of the ship to the other I need to mirror it rather than rotate it.

...

After you copy em and holding the blocks "in hand" press X- or C-Button (or was it X and Y respectivly Z on US Layout?) to mirror your current selection without placing beforehand!

it's z and x, z is flip the block/selection being placed front/back, x flips left right, there is no vertical flip, to do that you need to rotate then flip.

 

Volume matters most for most block, and for most blocks a single 10x10x10 block is better than 1000 1x1x1 blocks, cargo hold shows it the most, but most other blocks have the same mechanic to a lesser extent.

I think general building blocks ie hull/armour/stone/glow etc have no benefit except for the hp of the individual block

ie if each 1x1x1 block has 1 hp then both 1000 1x1x1 blocks or a 10x10x10 block will give you 1000hp, it requires more concentrated fire to destroy a 10x10x10 than 1000 1x1x1 blocks

Although be aware that a ship's total hp is lower than the sum hp of all the individual blocks.

 

Also solar panels are still an exception as AFAIK they are still based off surface area, although few people bother with them as a stack of solar panels still generate less energy than the same volume of generator.

[Blondersheel]

Volume matters most for most block, and for most blocks a single 10x10x10 block is better than 1000 1x1x1 blocks, cargo hold shows it the most, but most other blocks have the same mechanic to a lesser extent.

 

I just recently tested this on generators and found it to be false (I.e. The same total volume of smaller blocks was exactly the same power generation as a single large block.) the only cases I've found it to be true for are cargo bays and fighter bays. There may be others, but I would say most blocks are in fact only based on volume and don't have a hidden "wall thickness factor" like this.

 

it's z and x, z is flip the block/selection being placed front/back, x flips left right, there is no vertical flip, to do that you need to rotate then flip.

I can't believe I've been missing this! Thanks for the tip!

[Splutty]

...

5. If a copy a section of blocks in building mode, is there a way to flip them before placing them? I can rotate them but if I want to copy a section from one side of the ship to the other I need to mirror it rather than rotate it.

...

After you copy em and holding the blocks "in hand" press X- or C-Button (or was it X and Y respectivly Z on US Layout?) to mirror your current selection without placing beforehand!

 

Hmm. I tried that but it never worked for me. I guess I'll have a look again!

[Pob]

Volume matters most for most block, and for most blocks a single 10x10x10 block is better than 1000 1x1x1 blocks, cargo hold shows it the most, but most other blocks have the same mechanic to a lesser extent.

 

I just recently tested this on generators and found it to be false (I.e. The same total volume of smaller blocks was exactly the same power generation as a single large block.) the only cases I've found it to be true for are cargo bays and fighter bays. There may be others, but I would say most blocks are in fact only based on volume and don't have a hidden "wall thickness factor" like this.

I stand corrected, I was sure there was a very small change in total mass but your are right

 

I've just dome a simple test one cube of engine, one of crew quarters, one of thrusters.

Then I added 12 cubes of generators and 8 of shields

doing a block merge nothing changed, except a small increase in yaw/pitch/roll ???

As yaw/pitch/roll is dependent not just of the thruster size but also it's position relative to mass, it must be dealing with the centre point of each block as the mass location.

 

The one big advantage to using fewer blocks/combining into fewer block is ease of upgrade

 

One thing I should note is that using the combine block tool only work if the blocks share one side, are the same type. material and colour.

Please note that no slope or angle block can be combined, the only way to combine slopes is to delete them and replace them with a new block.

 

 

[dr_roo]

Thanks muchly folks, no doubt I'll be back with more daft questions soon :-)

[Martin Levac]

For the alt-mouse view limitation, it's been requested in suggestions sub-forum already, add your +1 to that thread (forget exactly which, do a search).

 

In the meantime, there's a few tricks you can use. Quickest is to add a holographic block that extends your ship's front so the camera is forced to focus further forward (with the bonus that you can dock from much further away cuz holo blocks can't make contact with anything but still register for docking, then color your holo block to make it invisible), but the problem here is that now the camera acts a little weird cuz its axis is offset from the ship's axis (due to center of mass staying pretty much the same spot) especially for yaw/pitch. Next is what I do, build mostly short, thin and wide, but then I hit the warp gate problem much more quickly cuz the ship won't fit even though it's still pretty small in terms of mass/volume (in fact the camera limitation is the primary reason for most of my ship designs to date). Finally, install turrets close to front upper point to mitigate parallax, but then it's kinda meh not so pretty solution.